Flight 1 - Whoops, Not a Clos de Bèze (1 note)

Medium yellow. Pristine stone fruit and some more tropical elements. Medium to full bodied. Fresh peach in the mouth with wonderful amplitude, roundness, and balancing acidity. Pretty astounding for a 13 year old Cote de Nuits village white.

Flight 2 - The Reds (5 notes)

Medium red core, faded edge. Smoky, earthy nose. Medium weight, no discernible wood. Slightly sweet cherries with a tart edge and a touch of green. Open and rich, but not overly so. Beautiful harmony, length, and a fine savory finish. In retrospect, the most fruit driven wine of the 4 vintages, but plenty of other things going on. Outstanding and delicious now.

Pale, significant browning. Fragrant secondary high tones. Lighter and much more structured than the 2009. Closed but still easy to discern soft red fruit and a ton of earth and minerality. This needs time but is an excellent 2008.

Pale center, watery rim. Soil and herbal notes, and that curious beetroot scent that always makes me wonder about chaptalization. Light weight. The fruit is hard to pick out yet it has some artificial sweetness and a charred quality (oak?). Quite tannic for its weight, lean back end that is full of earth. Disjointed yet somehow appealing, but it is less of a wine than the 2 younger vintages poured before it.

Medium light red. Some funky aromatics. Medium weight, foursquare with a bit of sappiness. Licorice and earth, good acidity, some brown spice, not at all fruity, long and earthy on the finish. Lots of stuffing, and this too needs time, but I wonder if it will turn out as well as the '08 and '09 have.

Light color with some browning. All earth and soil. Round, mouth coating feel. Terrific inner mouth aromatics. This is all terroir, yet it is not austere in the least. Great length, fascinating, complex savory finish. Exciting bottle.

Closing

This was a pretty exciting flight overall. I have had precious little experience with the Gelin wines (none at the Grand Cru level) and found much to admire from the cross section of 4 vintages. As a group, the wines perfectly displayed the attributes of Gevrey Grand Crus-earthiness, subtle fruit, fine aromatics, and elegance rather than weightiness. The fact that I did not notice a significant amount of oak in any of these wines was an additional bonus.